Please Take Good Care of Our Prince
“Your Highness. I’m not a god. I’m nothing more than a shrine maiden who serves one.”
The Sea Witch gave a sly smile. “I can’t possibly know everything that happens in this world.”
Neoul’s expression darkened in response.
“Liar. Old serpent. You wicked hag.”
From the Sea Witch’s oily, amused manner, Neoul was certain of it. That old woman had clearly known everything and was pretending not to. Come to think of it, the way she always showed up at exactly the right moment was suspicious, too.
“You helped me take part in an idol survival program even though you knew I was flailing around blindly. Why?”
For what purpose?
Neoul’s eyes sharpened. With the Dragon King fallen and her keeping silent while hiding the truth, she looked intensely suspicious.
The Sea Witch answered as though deeply wounded. “When have I ever done anything to harm Your Highness?”
She was so shameless about it that Neoul searched his memory.
Harmed him…? It felt like there had been plenty of times.
When Neoul was a baby, that malicious Sea Witch had repeatedly made him cry on purpose, then cackled over it.
“Do you even have a—?”
At Neoul’s frown and blinking stare, the Sea Witch burst out laughing again.
After a moment, she let the laughter die and dressed her voice in the gentleness of a spring breeze.
“There’s a saying that those who reveal heaven’s secrets invite disaster. A shrine maiden must keep her mouth tight. But even if I can’t tell you everything, I can still extend a helping hand. Just like now.”
She motioned for him to hand over the icebox at once.
Neoul did not let go of his sullen expression, but he lowered the hand holding it. The Sea Witch smoothly snatched the box away.
After checking the contents, she said to Neoul, “Worrying and fretting just doesn’t suit you, Prince.”
Her horizontally slit pupils gave off a faint gleam, as though she could see straight into his heart.
“Live however you want. It’s all right.”
With a small smile, she turned her gaze to Baek Yuri, who had been standing quietly nearby.
“You.”
“……?”
“I’ll be rooting for you.”
“Excuse me…?”
Baek Yuri, startled by the Sea Witch’s abrupt encouragement, let out a voice and forgot even Neoul’s warning not to speak.
Watching him panic, the Sea Witch gave a soft chuckle, said one more thing, and turned away.
“Please take good care of our prince.”
Neoul shook his head helplessly.
* * *
On the way back to the dorm, Baek Yuri asked Neoul carefully, “Why did you tell me not to speak?”
“The Sea Witch is always hunting for a fine voice.”
Hunting? Did that mean she would snatch it away?
Baek Yuri’s face went pale as he touched his throat. This was the very thing he planned to make a living with; if it were stolen, he’d be finished.
“But are you sure it’s okay to leave it with her?”
She seemed suspicious no matter how one looked at it. Was this really all right?
Baek Yuri worried whether the rabbit liver would actually be delivered safely to the Dragon King. But Neoul, the one directly involved, looked utterly unconcerned.
Neoul stopped walking and looked back. Gazing off into the distance, he spoke.
“The Sea Witch… likes to sneak up behind people and hit them in the back of the head, laughs at crying children, fears neither the Dragon King nor anyone else, and is a brazen old soul who occasionally steals jewels from the Dragon Palace. Still, she is trustworthy.”
“…?”
That was trustworthy?
Since when had the definition of trustworthiness become sarcasm?
If Baek Yuri had been in Neoul’s place, he would have turned around on the spot, snatched back the rabbit liver, and thrown himself into the sea.
But since the person involved said he trusted her, there was nothing he could say, so he kept quiet.
― Please take good care of our prince.
Somehow, he found himself with the vague sense that someone who said something like that couldn’t possibly betray them.
Baek Yuri prayed that the Dragon King, whom he had never even seen, would recover safely.
Just like that, the rabbit liver incident seemed to have been resolved somehow.
It was only much later that he realized it had been resolved at all.
* * *
July, three weeks before the first episode aired.
Idol Travel finally released the full version of the individual live performance video that had thrown everyone into confusion with its blind voting.
The voting had been split into “vocal” and “dance,” but in fact, the original video showed both dance and song at once.
A law student was devastated watching Neoul sway and squirm through the choreography while showing off an enchanting vocal line.
Ahhh… Neoul. So your name really was Gal Neoul…
Waaah. I’m sorry. I couldn’t bring myself to cast my precious vote for your dance…! But I did vote for you in vocals?!
So the identity behind Vocal No. 13 and Dance No. 5 was Gal Neoul.
How could one person possess such extraordinary talent and such catastrophic dance skills at the same time?
I’m doomed… but he’s so cute…
He was absurdly human, wasn’t he!
Now that I knew it was Gal Neoul, he looked downright adorable!
She should have realized from the way the dance video had been subtly zoomed out to hide Gal Neoul’s height and massive build.
Below Gal Neoul’s video, the comments were full of cries of despair from people in much the same state as the law student.
Neoul, I’m sorryㅠㅠ I just couldn’t with your dancing…
Aaaagh, Neoul, I’m so sorry I didn’t recognize youㅠㅠㅠ
┗ Aaagh, me too, I’m sorryㅠㅜ
┗ I’m currently performing a ritual of abject repentance..ㅠ
Maybe that’s why the group performance video only showed him flashing past for a moment or getting close-up shots.. so he can’t dance.. right..
I recognized him, but I didn’t vote for him. This is an insult to the choreographer….
┗ “Insult” is a bit much;; Still, he didn’t miss a single beat and actually did pretty well.
┗ Hard to say he didn’t miss a beat when Woo Cheong’s dancing is so different though? lol
┗ Woo Cheong is just a dancerㅋㅋ comparing him to someone who’s basically beyond idol standards, how’s that fair
┗ These days all idols can dance though, what do you mean “beyond idol standards” lol. Woo Cheong came on this show because he wanted to be an idol too, so calling him that every time he’s good at something must be seriously annoying.
┗ Yeah, nowadays idols only exist to fail encore stages~
┗ Not all of them. There are plenty of good ones, and saying that based on someone who’s bad at it or on manipulated footage is just narrow-minded. (link) Go watch this too.
┗ Yeah, he sucks.
┗ For fuck’s sake, “he sucks” what the hell are you even talking about? You didn’t even watch the video and you’re just leaving comments, blindly believing some outrageously malicious edited MR-removal clip while slandering him like a XXXX.
┗ Stop fighting in my comments and get lost.
Even after the owner of the “get lost” comment told them to knock it off, the fight only grew more heated, crossing the line more and more.
“Wow. At this point, they could actually sue.”
The law student, sick of watching the replies tear each other apart like animals in a pointless, nutrient-free brawl, skipped past them in disgust.
As she kept scrolling downward, a finally cheerful comment appeared — one people could laugh over together.
So adorable when he’s flailing around lol
Wowㅠ his tone is insaneㅠㅠ He gets a little breathless and shaky from dancing while singing, but his vocal color is seriously unfair..
┗ If you close your eyes while listening, it’s amazing, but if you open them, that one-of-a-kind dance line makes it impossible to focus lol
┗ I feel like I’m going to keep thinking about him even in my dreamsㅋㅋㅋ
┗ 22222ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Gal Neoul is trying so hard but he’s bad at it lolㅋㅋㅋ This is hilarious. Actually no, it isn’t funny
Noㅠㅠㅜㅠ My vote is a total disasterㅜㅠ
┗ lol sameㅠㅠ
┗ Sigh...
And in the middle of it all, his name is pretty tooㅠㅠ I think it’s a Korean name.
He can’t dance, but he’s adorable..ㅎㅎ
┗ lolㅠㅠ ah, I’m in danger of becoming a fan. The video’s been running for two hours and still isn’t over!
┗ Seriously, why are his feet just pattering around in the middle? He’s so cute I could die
Gal Neoul’s physique is insane..
┗ Honestly, these days both female and male idols are all skin and bonesㅎ With schedules this brutal, I wonder if they’re even eating properly. It makes me sad... but Neoul looks so sturdy I don’t worry about him at allㅋㅋ I feel like I can stan with complete peace of mind
┗ From head to toe, he’s unreal.
┗ Agreed. Baek Gi-yeom, Gal Neoul, debut!! You have to carry on the lineage of the vanished beast idols!!
┗ Ahem. I’m a MISSION fan—MISSION being the Clear fandom name—who’s loved Baek Yuri since his Clear maknae days and still supports him! Yuri’s physique is amazing too! He might look soft-faced, but his body was built from swimming and taekwondo since he was little! The Baek family boys are all martial arts practitioners, and apparently it’s tradition for each of them to win at least one elementary-school swimming gold medal..!
┗ Huh? Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom are from the same family?
┗ Yes! They’re cousins! Gi-yeom swam competitively until middle school, and Yuri won a medal in elementary school, then quit swimming and started preparing to become an idol!
┗ Wow, thank you for telling usㅠㅠ No wonder both of them have such broad shoulders..
┗ I went to elementary school with them, and they were famous in the neighborhood. Baek Yuri, Baek Namu’s twin brother, and Baek Gi-yeom used to stick together all the time, and the three of them swept the elementary swimming medals—backstroke, freestyle, butterfly, medley—everything (they kind of seemed insane)...
Anyway, they were unbelievably kind and polite and handsome, so everyone in class liked them, and they were popular with teachers and parents too. At the time, some kids were jealous because their mothers kept comparing them, telling them to at least be like those boys, but even those kids got won over by Baek Namu and Baek Gi-yeom’s ridiculous charm.
Honestly, Baek Yuri was the quiet bookworm, while Baek Namu had the most flair and spark and was the most popular by far. He was good at both singing and dancing, and it really felt like he’d been born to be an idol. He even said so himself and started training in fifth grade.
Baek Yuri followed because Baek Namu asked him to, but he had no talent and sometimes cried at school. Back then, of course everyone thought Baek Namu would be the one to become an idol. No one could have imagined that Baek Yuri would debut alone and even appear on a show like this.
┗ Wow, I thought Baek Yuri was a genius idolㄷㄷ Turns out he was the hard-working type..
┗ Is this really true? Wow…. I hope all three of them debut so they can meet on broadcastㅠㅠ
┗ They can’t. Baek Namu became a star in the sky five years ago.
Gal Neoul finishing his dance all proud and pleased is so cuteㅠㅠㅜ
┗ His smile is so harmless, but it’s harmful to my heart. I’ve been assaulted. (dead)
Oh no, I can already feel myself becoming a Gal fanㅋㅋㅋ
Then, as they released a preview clip of the first episode, Idol Travel redoubled its promotional push.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋWhat the hell is this about?
Suddenly a summer-ghost special lol
This is my first idol survival show like thisㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is hilarious
But wait, weren’t there originally 80 people? The vote had 81, though?
┗ Holy shit
┗ ㄷㄷㄷ what the hell is going on?
┗ Goosebumps….
The production team’s awful acting is so obvious lol That whole thing is scripted.
┗ Your life is scripted too~
┗ Looks like a script to me, so why are the replies acting like that.
* * *
The concept for Woo Cheong’s team, which began with Sim Bongsa and the turtle-dragon tale, had to be drastically revised partway through.
At first, everything had gone smoothly, from Woo Cheong taking the lead in arranging the choreography to them dividing the parts amicably.
They’d tried to express Sim Bongsa, who lured the rabbit down into the sea, with a languid, dreamlike mood.
But once practice truly began, the problem revealed itself immediately. The minors on the team were simply too cute.
The Japanese member Daiki habitually acted with a bit too much aegyo, and Ko Un-gu, with his bright, alert eyes, just looked like a little kid.
Fortunately, Woo Cheong had at least choreographed it himself, and with his tall frame and long limbs he suited the concept fairly well, but….
“Are you three really okay with this?”
The criticism came from Hala, the trainer who had come to check their progress.
“From where I’m standing, you don’t even look like one team right now. Ko Un-gu and Daiki—those two are completely doing their own thing. I’m not sure this is the right direction for your concept.”
Neoul, even when he kept his face expressionless, had a pair of dark eyes that always seemed touched with melancholy, so when he merely smiled a little, people said he fit the song rather well.
In truth, this was Neoul’s first time acting, so objectively speaking he wasn’t particularly good at it. Since the minors drew so much of the attention, Neoul had, in a sense, quietly faded into the background.
His face and voice were basically cheating, anyway; whatever expression he wore, people couldn’t help getting lost in him and staring blankly.
In the end, Woo Cheong’s team entered a meeting to rethink the concept from scratch.
“Should we just go with a cute younger-man type of concept?”
At Woo Cheong’s question, Ko Un-gu replied glumly, “I’m sorry. I just can’t pull it off properly….”
“Seh-jorn-ha-mni-da.”
Daiki, too, looked gloomy.
“Ah, no, no. Guys. At your age, I looked cute like a baby lion too, so this kind of thing didn’t suit me either. It’s natural that it’s hard. We should have thought of that first.”
Baek Gi-yeom hurriedly soothed the team members and tried to lift the mood.
“Baby lion…. Out of your own mouth….”
“You’re still pushing the lion image, Cutie Hyung? Raccoon Hyung said you’re not a lion! But, uh… you do kind of look like one!”
For a second, the bright eyes of Ko Un-gu lost focus, and Woo Cheong burst out laughing.
“Right? Mom said the dream before my birth was a lion too. Though it was wearing a multicolored flower crown.”
Once the atmosphere had loosened a little, Baek Gi-yeom smiled in satisfaction.
“The important thing is making a stage everyone can enjoy. Don’t get discouraged—think of this as getting a chance to make an even better performance. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Yep! Sounds good~!”
Then Daiki spoke in clumsy Korean. “Hanbok is good. Good idea? Opinion? Isn’t it?”
Woo Cheong added his own thoughts. “I want to keep the keywords of ‘hanbok’ and ‘seduction’ the same. But while doing that, what could make it really intense?”
Intense?
Neoul, who had only been staring blankly at the team members’ discussion, suddenly remembered the folk village they had visited before.
The people there who had been bleeding had not been injured at all; they had been deliberately dressed up as ghosts to scare visitors.
He remembered how even the fake ones had made cowardly Ha On-ha tremble in fear.
At that moment, he heard whispering from the ceiling. When he looked up, the two middle-school girl ghosts he had seen at the folk village were hanging upside down from above.
[Look here. Look here. Come on. Come on. I’ll root for you. I’ll root for you. Let’s go together. Let’s go together.]
It was like a whisper tickling his ears nonstop from above his head.
“Ghost?”
Neoul pointed at the ceiling and blinked.
“What if we tried ghost makeup?”
Of course, to Neoul they were not frightening at all, but humans seemed to find them quite terrifying.
“Oh, ghosts! Hearing Neoul, I just thought of a good idea! There’s a Korean ghost that fits this perfectly!”
Baek Gi-yeom sprang to his feet.